Karmanami fanfic: "Sounds of the Rain"

The chime of the elementary school bell echoed throughout the campus, signaling the end of another day of learning (and mostly suffering). The other kids flooded out the door after the dismiss of the bell, eager to go home and relax like any other kid. One child remained, though. A young girl with braided dark hair.

The girl stood in front of the window, staring in awe at the gloomy clouds that poured raindrops from the sky. The child ired the soft pitter-patter sounds that the raindrops made as they land on the gloomy land. "Manami, it's time to go home." A teacher called from behind the young girl, snapping her back into reality.

"Y-yeah..! I'm sorry." Manami stuttered, smiling awkwardly as she tilted her head, blushing knowing how weird she must've looked. With that said, she picked up her red bag and kept her umbrella in hand before exiting the empty classroom. Manami sighed, walking through the hallways, ing by several students her age who were chattering amongst themselves.

'How do they make it look so easy?'

Manami thought before she started putting on her outdoor shoes the moment she made it to the shoe lockers at the entrance. This girl here was never the social type. Nothing really stood out about her and she never really verbally complained about it, she figured that her voice was just too soft but it's obvious to her that she was just making excuses. With her bad communication skills and too simplistic outward appearance, it was easy to assume that Manami didn't have much friends.

She opened her umbrella before stepping out to the open sky where rain continued to fall. 'Pit-pat, pit-pat' the calming sound continued. The raindrops falling down led Manami's eyes to the ground where puddles of water started to surround her feet. Her eyes stared curiously at her reflection before they soften in disappointment. Dark braided hair, an old pink long skirt dress that her mother gave her, white knee high socks, an average face, an uninteresting personality and so much more flaws. That was Okuda Manami, the girl who didn't have anything going on for her.

Another sigh escaped her mouth before she ed by a bus stop. The rain clouds continued to cry, making loud thundering sounds occasionally, stubbornly blocking all light in the sky to seep through. Surprisingly, this was one of the few things that didn't scare Manami. Her eyes wandered around before landing on the people patiently waiting at the bus stop. There wasn't any benches nor a roof, just a sign that said 'bus stop' where the people stood. Everyone there had an umbrella of their own and everyone was their own unique character: A mother and child, a group of high school students laughing happily, a pregnant woman and her husband holding hands, a small redheaded boy with bandages on his face, a cute elderly coupl- wait a minute, a small redheaded boy with bandages?

Manami tilted her head, noticing that the boy didn't have an umbrella of his own. Why didn't the people surrounding him offer to share their umbrella with him? Filled with pity for the little boy, manami's eyes soften for a quick moment before seeing that look in his amber eyes.

His eyes glared at nothing in particular but it sent a shiver down the poor girl's spine and probably everyone else's spine too. Despite the strong glare, there were no signs of scowl wrinkles or angered expressions on his face. He just looked... Used to it. Is it possible that those bandages on his face are from fights that he gets himself in? That big bandage on his nose is often taken as a sign of a troublesome child. He must be a really strong kid despite his really small height. In all honesty, the boy looked really....

"...lonely."

Without thinking, Manami bolted to the boy and quickly handed him her umbrella. "H-here, have this..! Y-your wounds won't heal as quick if your bandages get wet!" She stuttered, saying that sentence as quickly as possible then started to run, leaving her umbrella to the boy. "Wait- wha? Don't you need this?" The little boy asked in pure confusion right after he quickly processed what just happened, a small bead of sweat appearing on his cheek.

Manami quickly turned around and quickly replied before running off farther before he could reply. "It's fine! My house is near anyways..!"

That was a lie.

If giving him her black umbrella helped push him forward at all, she's glad.

That little boy had the same look in his eyes as she did; they were similar but the key difference between them was that

he has potential

'Don't be like me, little boy.' Manami thought....

"-uda.... okuda!"

"Huh?" Manami quickly snapped back to reality to see her best friend, Miuna, in front of her with her hand flat on manami's table. "Did you hear what I said? I said that I have some work to do right now so I can't walk home with you today, I'm sorry." Miuna said, her expression unchanging but still giving off an apologetic tone. Manami smiled before nodding. "I-it's fine, I can walk home by myself."

Ahh, that's right-

Manami was daydreaming again. It's dismissal time for class E right now and it's raining.

"Very well, then. Wait- let me lend you my umbrella-" Miuna was quickly cut off by manami, waving her hand in front of her. "It's fine, its fine, my house is near anyways...!" Manami insisted, smiling gently at her overprotective best friend. "I'm unsure..." Miuna said, eyeing manami suspiciously.

"If it worries you that much, I'll walk her home, jeez."

A voice purred from behind manami as miuna's eye began to twitch. Turning around, Manami was met face to face with everyone's favorite delinquent: Akabane Karma. Miuna stared blankly at the redhead before clinging onto Okuda, ignoring the boy's existence. "On second thought, maybe I should walk you home." She said before karma pulled manami back by her shoulders with her bag already in his hands.

"We'll be going now, take care, agent karasuma~" karma said, already at the door with manami at his side. "If she gets hurt: You're dead, akabane." Miuna's motherly instincts kicked in as Manami laughed before the she and karma left the building.

And so, here we are now: the two of them walking under the rain filled sky with a black umbrella that karma had as their sheild. No words was exchanged between the two of them, just silence but not an awkward silence, just a mutual appreciation of the sounds of the rain. Manami closed her eyes for a bit, allowing only her other senses to experience to beauty of the sounds for once. The humidity, the sounds, the smell, all were things she understood through science yet she couldn't express them in verbal form. "Are you not uncomfortable, Okuda?" Karma said out of the blue, looking away as he did so. "Hmmm? Why wouldn't I be?" She asked, opening her eyes again to stare curiously at Karma.

"I don't know. Miuna doesn't trust me with you so I thought that you'd want to keep your distance." He replied with a shrug as Manami's face started to heat up like it normally does. "Oh- she's like that with everyone." She stated, waving her hand with a closed eyed smile. Karma stared at Manami for a moment.

"You're really cute, Okuda."

He stated without a hint of hesitation. Okuda stood there for a moment, processing his statement then suddenly her face turned into a bright red color. Shaking her head from side to side, Manami insisted that his statement was false. "No, really. You're cute." Karma stubbornly insisted, making Manami cover her face in embarrassment, keeping her down.

Crouching down a bit, karma looked at manami with a soft expression. "What's wrong?" He asked gently, acting very out of character. Manami's reply was muffled so the redhead asked her to repeat her response. Slowly looking up, manami looked at karma shyly. "I'm not used to being called cute... There's nothing cute about how I look.."

Karma STRONGLY disagreed with that statement but sighed in response before comfortingly patting her head. "I think you're cute. Your dorky smile, your kindness, your heart, all of it is very cute." He said, biting his lip, hoping that he doesn't sound uncool or too sappy. Okuda looked down for a sec before looking straight up at Karma again. "....Cute things make you want to protect them.." She trailed off before pouting. "..but you guys protect me all the time so I don't want to be cute. I want to be cool like you guys."

Karma stood there in shock. Usually words like "cute" or "cool" are childish words but her definitions of them gave off a whole different meaning. Karma smirked and leaned his forehead against her's.

"you really are a rare one, okuda manami."

Before okuda could get a reply, they arrived at her house where they stopped at the front gate. Karma stood in front of the dark haired girl, covering half of his face before handing her the umbrella. "I'm glad I finally got the chance to return this." He said before running off to the opposite direction. Confused, Manami looked at the umbrella's body before her eyes landed on a small name tag.....

It was her umbrella after all.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Whoop whoop-

looks like someone has been reading too much manga.

What cringy writing skills you got there, me.

Sorry for the grammar mistakes, bad writing and etc. uwu

Give more love for our beloved science nerd, please.

#EnhanceCreativity

((I drew the cover myself and already gave proof to the staff so don't worry. uwu))